Hospitals across the U.S. are trying to reduce maternal deaths and complications after pregnancies using one small tool: a silicone wristband stamped with the declaration “I Gave Birth.”
The wristbands are part of a growing initiative first launched by North Carolina-based ECU Health as Congress sought to address the nation’s growing maternal mortality crisis during the covid pandemic. Since 2021, nearly 50 North Carolina hospitals and the state’s health department have begun distributing the wristbands, to give mothers and care providers a visual reminder of the life-threatening health risks after birth.
The Connecticut state health department; large health systems in Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi; and hospitals in at least 24 other states have also embraced the program. The wristbands are intended to make emergency workers aware of postpartum risks, ensure better treatment, and help lower maternal mortality rates in the U.S., where nearly 70% of pregnancy-related deaths happen after the day of delivery — and nearly 40% happen after the six-week mark.
This year, North Carolina plans to expand the initiative with part of the $213 million it received through the Rural Health Transformation Program, a provision of President Donald Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Tamika Auguste, a physician and the board chair at the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists Foundation, praised the wristbands as a useful tool “to increase awareness and education around postpartum health.” But she and others who focus on maternal health said efforts like the wristband campaigns are only part of what’s needed to combat the broader maternal mortality crisis.
And they noted the wristbands’ popularity is emerging as Trump’s 2025 law is expected to reduce Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion over 10 years. Medicaid pays for at least 40% of births nationwide.
Elisabeth Wright Burak, a policy researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said Trump’s tax-and-spending law is stifling the momentum states had been gaining with maternal care since 2022. “There is no question that HR 1 risks setting the clock back for maternal health,” Burak said.
U.S. maternal mortality rates have risen and fallen over the past seven years, with 649 maternal deaths in 2024. Tennessee had the worst maternal mortality rate in the nation from 2020 to 2024, around 42 deaths per 100,000 births. North Carolina’s rate was about 29 in 100,000, with a national average of 23.
Hospitals provide a wristband to patients who have given birth and instruct them to wear it for weeks or months, hoping they’ll be reminded to check in with a physician if they feel chest pain, have headaches, or start bleeding. The accessory resembles the yellow Livestrong wristband.
“The bracelet itself is simply a reminder of, ‘Hey, I got education,'” said Jessica Noble, a nurse with ECU Health who pioneered the initiative.
It’s also intended to alert first responders and other healthcare providers that a woman has recently given birth and to check for postpartum complications. Emergency department staff and EMS workers sometimes don’t have adequate training to recognize postpartum complications, research shows.
Some postpartum patients who faced traumatic births or mental health struggles saw it differently. Alexandra Mellon gave birth last year. Her daughter was stillborn. She said wearing one of the wristbands would have been a painful reminder of her loss. Now she works as a doula in Asheville, North Carolina. “There are so many risks, and it’s just like you almost become invisible,” she said.
More than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, according to the CDC. But those efforts faced threats when the Trump administration sought to cut CDC funding for state-level maternal mortality data. Congress rejected that move, but the administration did lay off staff tracking postpartum patients’ health.
Campaigns like the “I Gave Birth” initiative are far from a final solution to maternal mortality, said Noble. If she “had a magic wand,” she said, North Carolina would not just have better postpartum care but would also address the root causes of pregnancy complications. “But I don’t have one, and I can’t make system-level change immediately.”
This article is republished from KFF Health News under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.